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Energy

ACCIONA urges companies to adopt its carbon neutrality model

11/14/2017

By participating in COP23, ACCIONA is encouraging companies to adopt its carbon neutrality model, as well as promoting the creation of a disuasory pricing system for CO2 emission rights, and a single transparent standard for all countries to measure pollutant emissions

At the 23rd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is being held in Bonn (Germany), ACCIONA has urged companies to make a determined shift towards decarbonising their production models. "By participating in this summit, ACCIONA encourages other companies to adopt its carbon-neutral approach," said Joaquín Mollinedo, General Manager of Institutional Relations, Sustainability and Brand at ACCIONA. "In the working groups and high-level meetings in which the company is participating, we are also promoting a CO2 pricing system that serves as an incentive to decarbonise the economy."

ACCIONA presented its approach to reducing and offsetting emissions, which has enabled it to achieve carbon neutrality since 2016. The company also detailed how the effort to minimise emissions and offset those inherent in its activity has served as a lever to improve its business and drive innovation.

ACCIONA also insisted on the importance of the Bonn Summit making progress towards standard, transparent procedures for measuring and assessing the degree of compliance with the commitments acquired under the Paris Agreement, which was adopted at COP21 in Paris in 2015.

ACCIONA also reiterated its support for creating market mechanisms that facilitate the decarbonisation of the economy, especially carbon pricing, in line with decisions already made by the European institutions.

During "Transport Day", organised as part of COP23, the Prince of Wales's Corporate Leaders Group, of which ACCIONA has been a member since 2009, released a report entitled "Electric avenue: The future of road transport in Europe", in which the company describes some best practices in the area of sustainable highways.

Access to basic services

The ACCIONA Microenergy Foundation, which channels ACCIONA's community outreach work to promote access to basic services, was also on site at COP23. In the international encounter entitled "PPP's for development and achievement of the Paris Agreement goals"the Foundation presented the "Electricity at Home Oaxaca" project as a success story, since it has provided electricity to 7,500 households in isolated rural areas of Oaxaca (Mexico) using photovoltaic solar panels. The programme is an example of public-private partnership for development since it involves the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (AMEXCID).

Sustainability as a business model

ACCIONA's commitment to combating global warming was made patent by the fact that, at COP21, it announced a commitment to become carbon neutral in 2016; it fulfilled that commitment and 72% of the company's EBITDA and 42% of its global revenues in 2016 came from activities classified as Green Economy by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Last year, ACCIONA's renewable energy production avoided the emission of 14.8 million tons of CO2 to the atmosphere. It also applies the sustainability approach to managing water, having reduced its own water consumption by 7% and achieved a positive water footprint of 510 hm3.